Glutamine provides carbon and nitrogen to support the proliferation of cancer cells. However, the precise reason why cancer cells are particularly dependent on glutamine remains unclear. In this study, we report that glutamine modulates the tumor suppressor F-box and WD repeat domain-containing 7 (FBW7) to promote cancer cell proliferation and survival. Specifically, lysine 604 (K604) in the sixth of the 7 substrate-recruiting WD repeats of FBW7 undergoes glutaminylation (Gln-K604) by glutaminyl tRNA synthetase. Gln-K604 inhibits SCFFBW7-mediated degradation of c-Myc and Mcl-1, enhances glutamine utilization, and stimulates nucleotide and DNA biosynthesis through the activation of c-Myc. Additionally, Gln-K604 promotes resistance to apoptosis by activating Mcl-1. In contrast, SIRT1 deglutaminylates Gln-K604, thereby reversing its effects. Cancer cells lacking Gln-K604 exhibit overexpression of c-Myc and Mcl-1 and display resistance to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis. Silencing both c-MYC and MCL-1 in these cells sensitizes them to chemotherapy. These findings indicate that the glutamine-mediated signal via Gln-K604 is a key driver of cancer progression and suggest potential strategies for targeted cancer therapies based on varying Gln-K604 status.
Glutamine/metabolism* ; Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein/genetics* ; Humans ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc/genetics* ; Cell Proliferation ; Signal Transduction ; Neoplasms/pathology* ; F-Box-WD Repeat-Containing Protein 7/genetics* ; Cell Survival ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Apoptosis

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of pneumococcal meningitis(PM),and drug sensitivity of Streptococcus pneumoniae(SP)isolates in Chinese children.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical information,laboratory data,and microbiological data of 160 hospitalized children under 15 years old with PM from January 2019 to December 2020 in 33 tertiary hospitals across the country.Results Among the 160 children with PM,there were 103 males and 57 females.The age ranged from 15 days to 15 years,with 109 cases(68.1% )aged 3 months to under 3 years.SP strains were isolated from 95 cases(59.4% )in cerebrospinal fluid cultures and from 57 cases(35.6% )in blood cultures.The positive rates of SP detection by cerebrospinal fluid metagenomic next-generation sequencing and cerebrospinal fluid SP antigen testing were 40% (35/87)and 27% (21/78),respectively.Fifty-five cases(34.4% )had one or more risk factors for purulent meningitis,113 cases(70.6% )had one or more extra-cranial infectious foci,and 18 cases(11.3% )had underlying diseases.The most common clinical symptoms were fever(147 cases,91.9% ),followed by lethargy(98 cases,61.3% )and vomiting(61 cases,38.1% ).Sixty-nine cases(43.1% )experienced intracranial complications during hospitalization,with subdural effusion and/or empyema being the most common complication[43 cases(26.9% )],followed by hydrocephalus in 24 cases(15.0% ),brain abscess in 23 cases(14.4% ),and cerebral hemorrhage in 8 cases(5.0% ).Subdural effusion and/or empyema and hydrocephalus mainly occurred in children under 1 year old,with rates of 91% (39/43)and 83% (20/24),respectively.SP strains exhibited complete sensitivity to vancomycin(100% ,75/75),linezolid(100% ,56/56),and meropenem(100% ,6/6).High sensitivity rates were also observed for levofloxacin(81% ,22/27),moxifloxacin(82% ,14/17),rifampicin(96% ,25/26),and chloramphenicol(91% ,21/23).However,low sensitivity rates were found for penicillin(16% ,11/68)and clindamycin(6% ,1/17),and SP strains were completely resistant to erythromycin(100% ,31/31).The rates of discharge with cure and improvement were 22.5% (36/160)and 66.2% (106/160),respectively,while 18 cases(11.3% )had adverse outcomes.Conclusions Pediatric PM is more common in children aged 3 months to under 3 years.Intracranial complications are more frequently observed in children under 1 year old.Fever is the most common clinical manifestation of PM,and subdural effusion/emphysema and hydrocephalus are the most frequent complications.Non-culture detection methods for cerebrospinal fluid can improve pathogen detection rates.Adverse outcomes can be noted in more than 10% of PM cases.SP strains are high sensitivity to vancomycin,linezolid,meropenem,levofloxacin,moxifloxacin,rifampicin,and chloramphenicol.[Chinese Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics,2024,26(2):131-138]

BACKGROUND:Irreducible femoral neck fracture was difficult to obtain anatomic reduction.As a new type of internal fixation,the femoral neck system is still blank for the treatment of non-anatomical reduced femoral neck fractures. OBJECTIVE:To explore the biomechanical stability of femoral neck system internal fixation under nonanatomical reduction in the treatment of femoral neck fractures based on finite element analysis. METHODS:CT data of the hip joint of a healthy female adult were obtained.Anatomical reduction of femoral neck fracture models with Pauwels angles of 30°,50°,and 70° were established using Mimics 21.0,Geomagic Wrap 2021,and SolidWorks 2020.The fracture proximal ends of the three anatomical reduction models were shifted upward by 2 mm along the fracture line,and three positive buttress models with different Pauwels angles were obtained.In the same way,three negative buttress models were acquired by shifting downward by 2 mm.SolidWorks 2020 was used to make the femoral neck system internal fixation,and the nine femoral neck fracture models were assembled with the femoral neck system.Then Ansys 19.0 was used for finite element analysis.The displacement distribution and maximum displacement,stress distribution and maximum stress of the femur and femoral neck system were recorded under 2100 N stress. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)When Pauwels angles were 30°,50°,and 70°,the maximum stresses of the femoral neck system appeared to be concentrated at the junction of the sliding hip screw and anti-rotation screw.The maximum femur stresses appeared to be concentrated in the medial cortex of the femur.The maximum displacement was concentrated at the upper of the femoral head and femoral neck system.(2)When Pauwels angles were 30° and 50°,the maximum displacement and maximum stress of the femoral neck system and femur were:negative buttress>anatomical reduction>positive buttress.(3)When Pauwels angle was 70°,the maximum displacement and maximum stress of the femoral neck system were:negative buttress>anatomical reduction>positive buttress;the maximum displacement and maximum stress of the femur were:negative buttress>positive buttress>anatomical reduction.(4)With the increase of Pauwels angle,the biomechanical advantage of the positive buttress was weakening.However,it was better than a negative buttress.When Pauwels angle was 30°,positive buttress was more stable than anatomical reduction.When Pauwels angle was 50°,the biomechanical difference between positive buttress and anatomical reduction became smaller.When Pauwels angle was 70°,the stability of anatomical reduction was slightly better than positive buttress.(5)If it was difficult to achieve anatomical reduction of femoral neck fracture during operation,but the positive buttress had been displaced within 2 mm,the femoral neck system could be used to offer stable mechanical fixation.It is necessary to avoid negative buttress reduction.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic utility of radiomics features extracted from 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT combined with clinical factors and metabolic parameters in predicting progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in individuals diagnosed with extranodal nasal-type NK/T cell lymphoma (ENKTCL). Materials and Methods: A total of 126 adults with ENKTCL who underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT examination before treatment were retrospectively included and randomly divided into training (n = 88) and validation cohorts (n = 38) at a ratio of 7:3.Least absolute shrinkage and selection operation Cox regression analysis was used to select the best radiomics features and calculate each patient’s radiomics scores (RadPFS and RadOS). Kaplan–Meier curve and Log-rank test were used to compare survival between patient groups risk-stratified by the radiomics scores. Various models to predict PFS and OS were constructed, including clinical, metabolic, clinical + metabolic, and clinical + metabolic + radiomics models. The discriminative ability of each model was evaluated using Harrell’s C index. The performance of each model in predicting PFS and OS for 1-, 3-, and 5-years was evaluated using the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Kaplan–Meier curve analysis demonstrated that the radiomics scores effectively identified high- and low-risk patients (all P < 0.05). Multivariable Cox analysis showed that the Ann Arbor stage, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), and RadPFS were independent risk factors associated with PFS. Further, β2-microglobulin, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score, SUVmax, and RadOS were independent risk factors for OS. The clinical + metabolic + radiomics model exhibited the greatest discriminative ability for both PFS (Harrell’s C-index: 0.805 in the validation cohort) and OS (Harrell’s C-index: 0.833 in the validation cohort). The time-dependent ROC analysis indicated that the clinical + metabolic + radiomics model had the best predictive performance. Conclusion The PET/CT-based clinical + metabolic + radiomics model can enhance prognostication among patients with ENKTCL and may be a non-invasive and efficient risk stratification tool for clinical practice.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy of recombinant human interferon α2b in the adjuvant treatment of neonatal pneumonia.Methods:A total of 60 children with neonatal pneumonia who received treatment in Lingbi County People's Hospital from January 2020 to January 2022 were included in this study. They were randomly divided into study and control groups ( n = 30/group). The control group was treated with conventional therapy and the study group was treated with recombinant human interferon α2b and conventional therapy. All children were treated for 7 days. The time to clinical symptom remission, total response rate, and inflammatory factor levels were compared between the two groups. Results:Before treatment, there were no significant differences in general data between the study and control groups (all P > 0.05). After treatment, the time to body temperature recovery, rale disappearance, cough disappearance, and shortness of breath disappearance in the study group were (4.03 ± 1.27) days, (5.13 ± 1.72) days, (4.96 ± 1.64) days, and (5.45 ± 1.52) days, respectively, which were significantly shorter than (5.13 ± 1.52) days, (6.73 ± 1.85) days, (6.73 ± 1.82) days, and (6.82 ± 1.74) days, respectively in the control group ( t = 3.04, 3.46, 3.95, 3.24, all P < 0.05). The total response rate in the study group was 93.3% (28/30), which was significantly higher than 80.0% (24/30) in the control group, and clinical efficacy was better in the study group than that in the control group ( Z = 2.40, P = 0.016). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, interleukin-6, and serum amyloid A in the study group were (2.96 ± 0.84) mg/L, (0.72 ± 0.33) μg/L, (6.25 ± 2.18) mg/L, and (3.48 ± 1.13) mg/L, respectively, which were significantly lower than (4.02 ± 1.53) mg/L, (1.16 ± 0.47) μg/L, (8.04 ± 2.06) ng/L, and (6.42 ± 2.03) mg/L, respectively in the control group ( t = 3.32, 4.19, 3.26, 6.93, all P < 0.05). Conclusion:Recombinant human interferon α2b for the adjuvant treatment of neonatal pneumonia can shorten the time to clinical symptom remission, decrease inflammatory factor levels, and improve clinical efficacy.

Objective:To analyze the fail mode of neoadjuvant therapy combined with surgery for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) after long-term follow-up.Methods:Clinical data of consecutive 238 patients with locally advanced resectable ESCC who underwent neoadjuvant therapy combined with surgery in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from September 2012 to October 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The failure mode in the whole cohort was analyzed after long-term follow-up. The overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rates were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. Survival differences were determined by log-rank test.Results:The pathological complete response (pCR) rate was 42.0% in 238 patients. After a median follow-up of 46.1 months, tumor progression occurred in 96 patients (40.3%), including 25 patients (10.5%) with local recurrence, 61 patients (25.6%) with distant metastases, and 10 patients (4.2%) with simultaneous local recurrence and distant metastases. The median OS and DFS were 64.7 months and 49.9 months. And the 3-, 5-, and 7-year OS and DFS rates were 70.0%, 52.8%, 36.4% and 63.5%, 42.5%, and 30.0%, respectively. The 3-, 5-, and 7-year locoregional recurrence-free survival rates and distant metastasis-free survival rates were 86.0%, 71.4%, 61.2% and 70.6%, 55.9%, 43.0%. Compared with non-pCR patients, the overall progression rate and distant metastasis rate of pCR patients were lower (26.0% vs. 50.7%, 16.0% vs. 32.6%, both P<0.05). And the 3-, 5-, and 7-year OS (83.0% vs. 60.2%, 69.7% vs. 41.7%, 50.4% vs. 27.7%, all P<0.001) and DFS rates (80.4% vs. 51.4%, 63.9% vs. 31.2%, 45.9% vs. 20.3%, all P<0.001) were significantly better in pCR patients. Conclusions:Distant metastasis is the main failure mode of patients with locally advanced ESCC after neoadjuvant therapy. Patients with postoperative pCR can achieve better long-term survival.

Objective:To analyze the failure patterns and survival after stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in patients with T 1-2N 0M 0 non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Methods:Clinical data of early-stage NSCLC patients who received SBRT at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2012 to September 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The primary observed endpoint was the pattern of disease progression, which was divided into intra-field recurrence, regional lymph node recurrence and distant metastasis. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate analysis was conducted by log-rank test, and multivariate analysis was performed by Cox's model.Results:A total of 147 patients with 156 lesions were included. The median follow-up time was 44.0 months (16.5-95.5 months). A total of 57 patients (38.8%) progressed: 14 patients (24.5%) had recurrence with the 1-, 3-, and 5-year local recurrence rates of 2.0%, 10.9%, and 14.3%, respectively; 36 patients (63.2%) had Distant metastasis with the 1-, 3- and 5-year distant metastasis rates of 12.2%, 22.4% and 28.6%, respectively; and 7 patients (12.3%) had recurrence complicated with distant metastasis. The 3-, 5- and 7-year OS rates were 80.5%, 64.2% and 49.9% for all patients, respectively. The median OS was 78.4 months. The 3-, 5- and 7-year PFS rates were 64.8%,49.5% and 41.5%, with a median PFS of 57.9 months (95% CI: 42.3-73.5 months). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that biologically equivalent dose and age were the factors affecting the efficacy of SBRT (both P<0.05). Conclusion:Distant metastasis is the main failure pattern in patients with T 1-2N 0M 0 NSCLC after SBRT. High-risk population should be selected for further systematic treatment to improve the efficacy.

Objective:To analyze the factors influencing the poor effect of short-term electrical spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).Methods:The medical records of PHN patients of either sex, aged 40-85 yr, of American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status classification Ⅰ or Ⅱ, who received short-term electrical spinal cord stimulation from July 2017 to July 2022, were retrospectively collected. The therapeutic effect was evaluated using the modified MacNab criteria at 3 months after operation, and the patients were divided into good efficacy group (excellent and good efficacy) and poor efficacy group (fair and poor efficacy). General information, disease course, lesion site, complicated diseases, ossification of the yellow ligament in the diseased spinal segment, severity of pain in the herpetic stage, standard antiviral therapy in the herpetic stage (for more than 7 days) and use of neurotrophic drugs in the herpetic stage (for more than 7 days) were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to screen the influencing factors for the poor effect of electrical spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of PHN.Results:A total of 168 patients were eventually enrolled, among which 69 had poor curative effect, and the rate of poor curative effect was 41.1%. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the patient′s age ( OR=2.230, P=0.015), course of disease ( OR=2.191, P=0.027), complication with diabetes mellitus( OR=8.859, P=0.010), ossification of ligamentum flavum at the same segment ( OR=6.602, P=0.019), severity of pain in the herpetic stage ( OR=5.788, P=0.038) and non-standard antiviral therapy in the herpetic stage ( OR=6.765, P=0.021) were the influencing factors for the poor effect of electrical spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of PHN. Conclusions:Age, course of disease, complication with diabetes mellitus, ossification of ligamentum flandum at the same segment, severity of pain in the herpetic stage and non-standard antiviral therapy in the herpetic stage are the factors influencing the poor effect of short-term electrical spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of PHN.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) regulates cell survival, proliferation, and metabolism. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with a complex pathogenesis and is closely related to aging. Studies have found that the pathological development of AD is often accompanied by changes in mTOR activity, but the role of mTOR in the pathogenesis of AD is not clear. In this paper, the complex of mTOR and its signaling pathways are first introduced, focusing on the effects of mTOR signaling pathways on synaptic plasticity and memory function, autophagy, βamyloid-β (Aβ), Tau protein and brain insulin resistance and other AD pathological features, secondly, the regulatory effects of mTOR signaling pathways in anti - aging and life prolongation are described, and finally the application of mTOR inhibitors in AD pathological research is introduced to provide new ideas for delaying and improving AD.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the optimal maintenance dose of caffeine citrate for preterm infants requiring assisted ventilation and caffeine citrate treatment. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 566 preterm infants (gestational age ≤34 weeks) who were treated and required assisted ventilation and caffeine citrate treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit of 30 tertiary hospitals in Jiangsu Province of China between January 1 and December 31, 2019. The 405 preterm infants receiving high-dose (10 mg/kg per day) caffeine citrate after a loading dose of 20 mg/kg within 24 hours after birth were enrolled as the high-dose group. The 161 preterm infants receiving low-dose (5 mg/kg per day) caffeine citrate were enrolled as the low-dose group. RESULTS: Compared with the low-dose group, the high-dose group had significant reductions in the need for high-concentration oxygen during assisted ventilation (P=0.044), the duration of oxygen inhalation after weaning from noninvasive ventilation (P<0.01), total oxygen inhalation time during hospitalization (P<0.01), the proportion of preterm infants requiring noninvasive ventilation again (P<0.01), the rate of use of pulmonary surfactant and budesonide (P<0.05), and the incidence rates of apnea and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (P<0.01), but the high-dose group had a significantly increased incidence rate of feeding intolerance (P=0.032). There were no significant differences between the two groups in the body weight change, the incidence rates of retinopathy of prematurity, intraventricular hemorrhage or necrotizing enterocolitis, the mortality rate, and the duration of caffeine use (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS This pilot multicenter study shows that the high maintenance dose (10 mg/kg per day) is generally beneficial to preterm infants in China and does not increase the incidence rate of common adverse reactions. For the risk of feeding intolerance, further research is needed to eliminate the interference of confounding factors as far as possible.
Caffeine/therapeutic use* ; Citrates ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Respiration, Artificial ; Retrospective Studies